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BC-US--Business Features Digest, US

The business news enterprise package planned through April 30. For comments or questions, call Joseph Pisani at 212-621-1975. For questions about photos, call ext. 1900. For questions about graphics, call ext. 7636. Repeats of stories are available from http://apexchange.com or the Service Desk, 1-800-838-4616.

NEW YORK â¿¿ For decades, computers have been helping people sort through data and news to decide whether to buy or sell stocks. Now the machines seem to have dispensed with the slowpoke humans. Just how big a role computers played in Tuesday's brief market swoon is uncertain. But, according to some experts, when human traders read a fake news tweet and hesitated to buy, the computers took over and went into sell mode. The result, they say, was a market completely on autopilot, at least for a few crucial seconds. What are the risks of such a market and should it be regulated? By Business Writers Bernard Condon and Matthew Craft.

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AP photos.

FALLING GAS PRICES

NEW YORK â¿¿ A sharp decline in the price of oil this month is making gasoline cheaper at a time of year when it typically gets more expensive. It's a relief to motorists and business owners and a positive development for the economy. Nationwide, average retail prices have fallen by 28 cents, or 7 percent, since the end of February to $3.51 per gallon. Analysts say pump prices call fall an additional 20 cents per gallon over the next two months. By Energy Writer Jonathan Fahey.

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AP photos.

FOOD-GAS DRILLERS' DELIGHTS

PENNSDALE, Pa. â¿¿ The land of scrapple and chipped ham is starting to get a taste for jambalaya and boudin. Thanks to an influx of Southerners filling jobs in north-central Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry, a region not often placed on many culinary maps is finding itself flush with the foodways found below the Mason-Dixon line, arguably the source of some of the nation's richest culinary traditions. Suddenly, convenience stores stock sweet tea, barbecue is a hot seller, and the almost Norman Rockwell-quaint Country Store in Pennsdale even makes its own boudin, a pork sausage popular in Louisiana. By Genaro C. Armas.